New 60 mb station for Venezuela’s Antena Internacional

A new shortwave transmitting station is now under construction for the International Service of Radio Nacional de Venezuela, Antena Internacional (Antena Internacional – also known as Canal Internacional – currently leases shortwave airtime from Radio Habana, Cuba.). The new installation will include a 50 kW transmitter to be operated on the 60 metre Tropical Band, and five 100 KW shortwave transmitters to be operated with several antenna arrays.

The new transmitting station is located in the State of Guárico, and the antenna systems will include several high gain curtain arrays and also quadrant type omnidirectional antennas for short and medium range coverage. The new transmitters are of the pulse step modulation type, and very efficient from the point of view of energy conversion, that
is that they are capable of producing a 100 percent modulated signal with much less electricity than what is required for a high level plated modulated transmitter.

The Radio Nacional de Venezuela engineering department is in charge of the project and it is expected that the first transmitter may be on the air pretty soon. The new Venezuelan international broadcasting facility is going to be one of the most modern and energy efficient installations in the Americas, and its antenna systems were designed with coverage of the Americas as the prime target area, but as expected, it may be heard around the world when propagation conditions are good.